How often have you muted those stupid questions at the tip of your tongue? Where you sat in your classroom and your teacher had given you your assignments. Remember your friends scrambled for their pen and paper to get started. You, in turn, were puzzled, looking around the room trying to get a hint as to what it is you were supposed to be doing. So the question arises; do you really want to be that one student who timidly pops their hand in the air to say ‘What are we supposed to be doing?’

Growing up with stupid questions

This situation may as well encompass growing up itself; the fugitive steps to act like you know when you don’t. To fake comfort, when clearly it stayed in bed when you got up this morning. Only today, in real life, we are too intimidated by life (your teacher 2.0) to even put our hand up and ask, while unaware that there are no stupid answers to stupid questions. Nowadays, falling out of the norm and seemingly not measuring up is terrifying, so we pull from our inner Meryl Street and perform as someone who is always in the know. Yes, you understand and therefore nod confidently when your morning meeting speaker gives your team all the stats, abbreviations and jargon at work. The alternative is putting your hand up and ask those 101 stupid questions.

Growth

A list of questions is representative of a mind that seeks growth. So your younger frustrated self is wondering why on earth they are now introducing letters to your mathematics class. Ask why and find some satisfaction in the answer – to promote critical thinking, identify patterns and problem solve. Yet going through years of algebra, not knowing why you are doing so will put a stopper as to how enthusiastically you learn. We, humans, look for purpose. If we can’t find any, we are likely to underperform, and these idiotic questions make sure you won’t.

Not knowing is human. While omitting to ask questions is a fully-fledged decision. Yet you’ll find that not knowing while seeking knowledge is growth itself.

Where you start

‘Stupid’ simply gets to the basics. The basics which we rely upon to build a worthy, strong and robust infrastructure that we call knowledge.

If you were to be able to see all the questions you have ever asked Siri – what would you find? Yes, a bunch of questions attempting to ascertain just how intelligent your voice assistant is (and quickly hitting the limits) but how about the ‘stupid’ ones? The ones you wouldn’t ask your boss, but the ones you’d love to know the answer to. Yes, the hilarious questions on yahoo answers hit a new low, but they got their answers didn’t they? Even if the answers were dipped in sarcasm and meme-use, you can confidently say these are stupid questions that make you think right?

Where do you start understanding, if not by asking the obvious? If you don’t start at the beginning, your fundamentals wrong. Chances are these acts of omission will affect your outcome. All of which would have been negated by you raising your hand and asking. You ask the ‘stupid’ questions because they are the greatest ones to pose, masquerading as stupid.

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I always say, and try to encourage my kids to ask, ask, ask. If you don’t know then ask. I will say though, that early on in life, there are some teachers who are so stuck on teaching responsibility that if a kid didn’t hear something, or asks twice, the teacher gives an angry response making the student possibly feel stupid or intimidated. Then they don’t want to ask questions anymore. I’m not saying it’s always that way, but it sometimes is, it starts young, and that’s sad. Not that I don’t want my children to learn to be responsible for themselves, or do I think they should have their hand held through everything, but I think there is a line there between expecting responsibility and maturity, and actually teaching it.

It’s a really great thing to teach kids as young as possible for sure. I think critical thinking is the only skill that cuts through all industries and disciplines. As long as they know they’re allowed to ask questions at least at home, I am sure it’ll work as a great template to refer back to.

“Not asking is a decision. Not knowing and seeking knowledge is growth itself.” True and very true…. It takes courage though; breaking through the barrier of self -acknowledgement and perceived slight from peers. The goal of being knowledgeable “should” help penetrate that barrier. Can there be stronger motivations?

Exactly, what more do humans want than knowledge and expanding on what we already know? I mean hell, how many times did a great thinker go back to basics to question everything that arose out of a faulty assumption? Only the best ^^